Bay of Plenty's top female leaders share their journeys to the top

On International Women's Day, Stephanie Arthur-Worsop speaks to four of the Bay of Plenty's top female business leaders about their experience climbing the corporate ladder, what success looks like to them and what they think needs to change to achieve a better gender balance in business.

Cathy Cooney, Toi Ohomai board chairwoman

Toi Ohomai board chairwoman Cathy Cooney says people should seize opportunities as they arise. Photo / Supplied

When Cathy Cooney was gifted a masculine bone taonga in 1990, the kaumātua presenting it told her: "This is because you will be a woman who stands in a man's world".

It's a memory that has stuck with her for the past 30 years as she has navigated her professional career as a manager, chief executive, board chairwoman and mentor.

Cooney said she always had a burning desire to see things improve and early on in her career as a nurse and midwife, she developed an interest in leadership.

"I did my BA extramurally over a number of years. There was a lot of leadership and management study through that and I became very interested in what it was about - leadership that made a difference to teams and to getting results.

"I have quite an inquiring mind and I think that's an important thing for people who are aspiring to move into those leadership and governance roles."

Cooney was the Lakes District Health Board chief executive from 2001 to 2012 and has since been a management consultant, holding a number of local and national governance and advisory roles.

In 2016, she became the chairwoman of the Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology board of directors.

Cooney said there were without a doubt more opportunities for women to move into leadership roles in 2021 than when she started out, but it was important women put their hats in the ring.

"People need to be willing to take a risk and seize the moment. For many women, actually putting themselves out there is the first barrier to moving up the ladder and obtaining those executive positions.

"There are enormous opportunities now for men and women in leadership. Education is absolutely key, people who aspire to be in corporate roles, whether that's in the public or private sector, do need to put in the hard graft and build the knowledge, gain the skills.

"There's also a high need for communication skills and relational skills, you need to be able to work in teams and empower people, be prepared to grow in the role, and listen and learn as you go."

Cooney said workplaces today were thinking more about how to support women and balancing work/life balance.

"The health system has always had a large female workforce but certainly there's been times as a chief executive and being involved in boards when I was the only woman in the room.

"But more often than not that's not the case because I work in a workforce that is primarily women and has always endeavoured to build teams that have a good gender balance and, with my Toi Ohomai chair hat on, we've always worked hard to keep a good gender balance."

Cooney said she had been aware throughout her career that at times when she was the only woman in the room, her presence had affected the types of conversations and language used.

"But what I will say is the men I've worked with over my career, I've always had really good working relationships with. People have always been respectful and focused on the job at hand.

"Looking back, a skill I've had to learn as a female and with my particular personality is making sure my voice gets heard.

"It's a learned skill for many and it certainly was for me. I had to learn to be more assertive in getting my points across, but it is absolutely something that can be taught and improved."

Cooney said she had the privilege of working alongside and being taken under the wing of some remarkable female leaders during her career in the health sector.

Being in positions of leadership, Cooney works hard to be that mentor for the next generation of female leaders.

Jacky James, director and founder of the Shine Collective

Jacky James built her public relations empire in the Bay of Plenty.

Jacky James is the type of woman who jumps into everything she does with both feet.

That's why when she decided to establish her own public relations firm, The Shine Collective, she decided it was going to be all or nothing.

The fact she is a woman never crossed her mind as being something that could hinder her and it hasn't.

"I've freelanced on and off since I was about 30 then when the Global Financial Crisis hit, I decided I needed to get a real job, so I started working for the police.

"I really loved that job and I did it for three years, but then the subject matter started getting to my head a little bit, especially as a mother to young children.

"How this iteration of Shine happened was I got a call from somebody who I had worked with previously asking whether I knew anyone who wanted to do some communications work and I thought 'actually, maybe it's time', so decided to take the leap again but do it properly and permanently."

James said she had enough work to sustain herself financially two weeks after deciding to go out on her own and in the past nine years, that momentum had not slowed.

"We knew we loved Rotorua and wanted to stay but there were very few jobs for me here so I knew I would have to create my own destiny.

"You create your own opportunities and I'm a big believer that if you have faith in yourself, the universe will deliver.

"Whenever I've come to make significant business decisions, I tend to leap because things always fall into place."

Since then, James has expanded into Tauranga, establishing a second office and hiring a further two employees based in the city.

"I had this vision in my mind of what I thought success looked like to me and that was to have a couple of employees and an office with a reception desk. That was my idea of success and we had that within the first 12 months.

"We've planned as we've gone because things have always happened so quickly. We were doing a lot of work in Tauranga and I was having to commute regularly, so we decided to put a small office there as well.

"A lot of it has happened organically, there's never been an ambition for world domination and perhaps that's why we've been successful because that's not what drives us.

"We just want to support our local economy, contribute to our local community and support local people. That's what drives us, not the money."

James said she genuinely did not feel disadvantaged by her gender, nor felt it was something she had to worry about.

"I've always worked with strong women who had a chair around the table, whose voices were heard and what they said was acted on, so I have always felt that could happen in my industry.

"But I know that's absolutely not the case for heaps of women and certainly if you're working in the private sector when you start getting up to those top tiers.

"What we're seeing in the corporate world are women being appointed to senior executive or chief executive roles in organisations that are being disrupted, are challenged or are having major issues because they require a problem solver and women seem to be naturally skilled at solving problems and dealing with issues.

"In general, men are not taking on those roles quite so much because if things don't go so well, it could impact their reputation at their next job whereas women, because there are so few opportunities available to them, they do take those jobs.

"We are seeing good change in government agencies and local government because there is legislation in place to ensure more women have a seat around the table and there are plenty of women running small businesses but the change in the private, corporate sector is much slower because there isn't that legislation pushing it to happen.

"For me, I approach everything as if it was a level playing field and I just go in and do my job."

Kiri Tahana, Kahui Legal managing partner

Kiri Tahana says more needs to be done to rectify gender and diversity imbalance in law leadership. Photo / Supplied

Kiri Tahana knew she wanted to be a lawyer from the time she was 13.

She loved debating and public speaking but above all, she had a strong desire to help Māori redress some of the injustices of the past and saw law as a tool to do that.

Tahana was raised to aim high and spent her intermediate and high school years at all-girls' schools so her aspiration to become a lawyer never felt out of the ordinary.

It wasn't until she made it into the profession that the gender and cultural imbalance became clear.

"When I started out there were only a few female partners and one Māori partner in this large corporate law firm.

"The traditional business model for law firms values time. The more time spent working, the more profit but this never inspired me if it came at the expense of my family. Many other women lawyers expressed similar views.

"It is changing, slowly, but the imbalance still exists."

Tahana said she could now see how female lawyers had been socialised in the past to accept things that were not okay.

"Now, we're seeing this younger generation, which is quite inspiring, calling out this conduct in law firms which we, at the time, wouldn't have had the support to call out or necessarily have been conscious to it not being okay."

But for Tahana, a lack of understanding within law firms of te ao Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi was far more confronting than gender issues.

"My father used to talk about structural and institutional racism in the 1970s and 80s. The same applies to institutional sexism. We are only now, some 30 years on, seeing governments publicly recognise these as issues but they have been issues for years."

Tahana spent several years working overseas in London, Sydney and Dubai before returning to New Zealand four years ago.

"Living offshore helped me realise how interconnected we all are, how we have shared stories of historical injustices and strong common human values.

"We have much to learn from all genders and cultures. When you work with people from 200 different countries where no one group is dominant, difference is the norm and is embraced.

"It's not about women wanting to be the same as men, it's about having environments that work for women. The same applies to all types of difference."

Tahana is now managing partner at Kahui Legal, a firm that works at the forefront of Māori development with offices in Wellington and Rotorua. The firm seeks to operate in accordance with Māori values.

"Kahui was established partly in response to the environments that don't work for, or understand, us or our clients."

"We have three female and two male partners and about 70 per cent of our lawyers are women and 30 per cent men.

"But we are also constantly challenging ourselves that we don't have to practice how traditional law firms practice. We can reset the rules but that takes bravery and innovation. I see it as mana motuhake, doing it our way in accordance with our values."

To women with ambitions to become leaders in their profession, Tahana's advice was to "define your own professional success by reference to the life you want".

"Constantly seek to learn and grow, focus on the journey and not the destination and do not be afraid to seek to change your environment through positive solutions.

"If you cannot change it, move on. Leadership to me is living in alignment with your values and making a positive contribution to our communities."

Jen Scoular, chief executive New Zealand Avocado

Jen Scoular says it's tough being a female leader but she wouldn't give up being a woman for the world. Photo / Supplied

Accountant, horticulture chief executive and international diplomat are not jobs you typically see on the same CV.

But that's what you get when you jump at opportunities the way Tauranga's Jen Scoular does.

Scoular is now known in the Bay of Plenty for her role as chief executive of New Zealand Avocado but started her career as an accountant.

In London, she worked at Merchant Banking where, at the time, only about 5 per cent of employees were women.

When she moved back to Tauranga, she got a job at Zespri, which she described as a "wonderful growth company at the time".

"I left because I applied for a role as a diplomat in Hamburg and I thought I would have no chance of getting that role as an accountant and an exporter in kiwifruit but as I've done throughout my whole career, if there's an opportunity there, you just have to take it."

Just like that, Scoular moved her husband and two daughters across the world to Hamburg where they quickly adjusted to their new life.

"The role was incredible, I was the consul-general trade commissioner, I had a trade role that looked after 19 countries from Russia, through Scandinavia, Germany and Austria, western Europe and down to Turkey.

"I had six New Zealand embassies in my region and I was tasked with keeping them up to date with what New Zealand exporters were doing and connecting New Zealand exporters with people and companies in the countries they were looking to export to.

"It was definitely a large challenge but a fascinating journey and one that allowed me to meet so many incredible people.

"When my contract was ending and I was looking for my next opportunity, the role at New Zealand Avocado came up. It ticked a lot of the boxes for my experience and my passion so we came back."

Scoular said every job she's held has been male-dominated but change was happening, albeit slowly.

"I sit on the executive committee of women in horticulture and 18 months ago we talked about the words people use to describe women leaders.

"We get described as aggressive, direct or bossy while men get described as ambitious, strong or leading. We tend to get those negative words and it doesn't help but there are some positive activities happening around the mentorship of women and a focus on diversity.

"We don't want to flip the table and have an old-girls' club. What we're saying is we don't want an old-boys' club. The more diversity we can add - gender, culture, thinking and ideas - the better the results produced will be."

In horticulture, Scoular said it was important to note a lot of orchards were owned by couples who shared the decision making but more males were coming up to board tables.

"That's what we've got to working harder at - enabling women, giving women a voice and the confidence to sit at those board tables because they are definitely just as capable."

Reflecting on her career as a female leader, Scoular said it had been a tough road.

"We've had to work harder, connect more, influence quietly, we weren't able to be authentic because women weren't really who men wanted in their clubs.

"There's no way I'd say it's been an easy ride and if I were male, it would have been much easier but I love being a woman and I wouldn't give up being a woman for the world."

Scoular hoped women leaders were mentoring their colleagues, daughters, friends and daughters-in-law to have the confidence to step up, as that was what it would take to change the gender imbalance in business.

"Watching other women succeed is fantastic and inspiring and seeing that pathway to leadership is available shows other women they too can not only aspire to it but achieve it."